


StorySpift

by MultiSoulZero



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Puella Magi Madoka Magica Spoilers, Roleswap, tags added when necessary
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:55:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 10,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25236541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MultiSoulZero/pseuds/MultiSoulZero
Summary: The half-spin, half-shift AU no one asked for!
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	1. a cave of armor and spears

**Author's Note:**

> I just took half of StoryShift's roles, half of StorySpin's roles, mashed them together, and ran with it. And also a bunch of other stuff in the middle but that's not important rn

A draft of fresh air blows through your hair. You feel flowers on your squished nose, so you push yourself upright into a sitting position.

Looking around, you see dark blue cave walls around you. Light slips in through the cracks in the ceiling, but mostly through the big hole in the ceiling you fell into. It looks too steep to climb with no equipment, so you’ll have to figure something else out. Thankfully, there seems to be a path off to your side.

You stand up and brush off any dirt and petals off your green-striped orange shirt and brown pants. It’s tacky, but clothing is clothing. 

Walking deeper into the cave, you cross a few shallow streams of water pouring out of other, smaller cave paths. Soon enough you find yourself in a more spacious room of the cave with two diverging paths. Before you can pick either, you notice something very out of place in this scenario. Standing in the middle of the room is an action figure that just barely is tall enough to meet your knees. Its design looks to be of a knight, donned in a silver pointed helmet and a bronze chest piece with silver armored arms. Differentiating it from a classic knight, however, is the red cape and blue jeans.

You move to pick it up and take it with you, deciding it shouldn’t be left in some empty cave, but the toy moves first. And talks.

“Hello there, human!” It greets you, its voice bitcrushed beyond recognition, “Welcome to the Underground! More formally known as the Monster Kingdom!”

“What kingdom situates itself in some damp cave?” you question the toy.

“Oh it’s more than just a damp cave! You’d be amazed at how much we have down here!” 

“Are *you* a monster?” 

“Oh, no, Greatness is not a monster, but Greatness can do just about anything a real monster can!” the toy puffed out its tiny chest as its cape began flowing in the nonexistent wind.

“Greatness is your name. Okay, well, do you know a way out of here, Greatness? Or at least something to help me climb back out through the hole back a few rooms.”

“A way out, hm? Well I do know of one guaranteed easy exit, but it’s a pretty long walk!”

“A scenic route. I’m curious, so, sure.” You accept Greatness’ offer.

“Wonderful!! Firstly, you should know something about us monsters - we express ourselves through magic, whether it be through bonding or-”

A streak of glowing blue shoots past your head, interrupting Greatness. “-... violence.”

From the left path, a figure taller than you steps forward. A glowing blue spear was in one hand, illuminating their details - a faded lavender uniform underneath a worn down metal breastplate, unconnected metal gauntlets, and a dented iron helmet.

“Surrender and I’ll make it quick,” the figure spoke, its voice sounding gruff under the helmet.

You stand stunned at the sudden assault. Greatness was suspicious, but this armored loon is a threat outright. Before you can think any further, another spear is hurled towards you, your hand shooting out reflexively and eyes closed to brace for impact. Fallen into a hole just to be killed by a masked menace, what a blunt tragedy this is. You reminisce about your life and your choices, but you realize you’re still alive.

You look towards the two strangers to see the shattered remains of a magic spear fizzling out on the ground.

“Well that was impressive!” Greatness said, turning to you, “But what would be even better is a speedy escape.”

You decide to think later and act now, dashing towards the path on the right and grabbing Greatness along the way. The spear-wielding threat quickly starts sprinting after you, chucking more magic spears towards you as you narrowly avoid each throw. Soon, the cave turns into a mineshaft environment with more splitting paths. You take a sudden turn down one path and cling to the wall behind one of the wooden pillars. Your plan is put into effect as your pursuer dashes down the same path, unknowingly passing you as they dash further down. You tip-toe out of your hiding spot and promptly sprint down the other corridor, successfully pulling off your gag cartoon trick.

“Very clever trick! I’m sure Undy-yyyying Knight will be chasing your shadow in this maze for quite a while!” Greatness piped up, now riding your shoulder as your hand was not a comfortable seat. “Take a right at the second intersection then left at the third and we should be safe.”

Deciding that you would rather listen to a toy than your panic-induced mind, you follow its directions. Eventually you find yourself at a clearing from the mining tunnels, a large, natural cave area with a river and a nearby waterfall. You follow the river until you find a convenient bench alongside it and decide now is a good time to catch your breath.


	2. ruff encounters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> our protagonist finds a dog and goes to town

You prop yourself up from laying on the bench for a while and turn to Greatness, “Thanks for the assist back there.” 

“Of course! It would be terrible if you got lost!”

“Not that, I mean with stopping her spear.”

“Huh? But you did that!”

You try remembering if you threw anything that broke the spear, only remembering your reflexes kicking in. “... what did I do?”

“You really don’t know? That’s almost more amazing than actually knowing! To keep it brief, what you used was a magic shot, a type of spell exclusive to certain kinds of humans that is much more powerful than a typical magic bullet produced by a monster.”

You look down at your hand, imagining magic shooting out of it. Curious, you make a gun shape with your fingers and try imagining a burst of magic shooting from it.

“Bang.”

_ pew! _

From your fingers came a yellow ball of magic the size of your fist. It shot out like a low-power baseball-pitching machine, splashing like a giant droplet of water against the cave wall.

“Yup! Exactly like that. It’s a unique property of yellow souls!” Greatness hopped off of the bench and turned to face you, “Speaking of magic, we should get you some proper practice in handling monsters! As most use magic to expre-”

A white, furry blur shot across, tackling Greatness and landing a few meters from the bench. “AGH! Stop licking Greatness, you pesky pooch! Greatness is not slobber-proof!”

You walk over to the newcomer to pull them off, only to be repelled by a single bark that hit like a burst of wind. Note to self, never try to pick up anything again.

“Bark off, human, this chew toy’s mi-hhuman?!” The dog released Greatness from its clutches and dashes directly towards you. You dodge its air-leap tackle and turn to see it make a sick turn-slide landing. “I like your spunk, kid! Say, what’s your name? Favorite food? Favorite smell? Favorite chew toy?” As the dog asks, visible, cartoonishly-styled airwaves shoot from its mouth towards you. You sidestep the first three, only to get hit by the fourth one. It hurts as much as a pinch on the cheek, so you ignore it and answer the dog’s question.

“Frisk. Onions. Onions. Onions.” 

“Got a thing for onions? That’s pretty weird, but I totally get it. I knew a guy who drank ketchup for fun, so there’s worse out there,” sir barks-a-lot struts up to you, sitting right in front of you. “Well Frisk, nice to meet you! And your chew toy friend,”

“Greatness is NOT a chew toy!!” He responds, walking up to join you two.

“Right. My bad, I guess. Here, take this as an apology,” the dog shook itself as a hotdog began escaping its fur. You cautiously take the hotdog, realizing that it is in fact not a real hotdog, but a hotdog-themed purse. “It’s on the dog-house ;)”

“Thanks,” you respond, too confused to know what to start questioning.

“No problem, buddy. See you later!” The dog said, prancing off towards the direction you came from. You never got its name, but it was the fluffiest-looking pomeranian you’ve ever seen.

“Thank goodness that ordeal is done with!” Greatness says, “We should probably procure some supplies at Riverton then be on our way!”

“Hey, Greatness. Was that dog a monster?”

“It most certainly was! Monsters come in a variety of sizes, shapes, species, genders, colors, complexions, and abilities! You see, monsters are made of magic, and…” Greatness continued to explain the biology and culture of monsterkind in great detail as you navigated through the cave, now increasingly more open with more rivers and an occasional structure made with deep-blue bricks. 

Along the way, you run into an occasional monster, Greatness breaking into a tangent to talk about the person facing you. They all turned out to be rather friendly or simple, such as the vegetoids that offered you food in the form of green magic, or the moldsmal who stopped trying to shoot beads of themselves at you once you pat them on what you assume was their heads. Eventually you find your way to Riverton, a modest small town with the same blue brick building style you saw before. As Greatness guides you to a convenience shop, you think back to that Undying Knight person, how it seemed they were the outlier in aggression. However, they also knew that you were a human. Did they have a grudge against humans? Or would monsters normally turn on you, given the knowledge of your identity? You don’t bother tuning back into Greatness’ monologue and instead ask directly.

“Greatness, do monsters hate humans?”

“H-huh? I’m pretty sure n-not *all* monsters hate humans, but um…” It seems you asked your question too loudly. You turn around to see the responding monster about your height, wearing a gaudy green robe and a large straw hat concealing most of their yellow face. “Typically it’s the monsters that want to r-hurry breaking the barrier that look for human so-...”

It looks like this is another monster that recognizes what you are. You get into a fighting stance, only for the monster to run away. You notice they dropped their groceries, but you do not move to pick them up. The monster quickly returns, picks up their bags, and begins running away again, only to slow down to prevent the bags from flying around. Sensing a need to confront this particularly competent monster, you begin your pursuit. A pursuit that lasts twenty seconds as they only ran around a corner and into a dead-end alley.

“*huff, hoo*, th-that was… a close one…” They’re panting while leaning against the far wall. “I… can’t believe… another human fell down…”

“It’s important to know what your enemy is capable of before fleeing, you know.” The monster jumps in surprise, hat displaced enough to see the worried expression of.. a dinosaur? “What kind of monster are you, by the way? Your name? Pronouns?”

“I-uh, er. Um…!” The yellow dino tries to escape again, but you swiftly block the only way out. “I-I-I-I’ll use f-force, if I have to!” they say, small jolts of electricity emanating from their raised claws.

“I don’t want to fight you. I will if I have to, since I guess that’s a thing monsters do, but-”

“We’re not v-violent!”

“Then we can talk. Name, first. I’m Frisk.”

“I’m A-Alphys… W-where did you…?”

“Some hole in some mineshaft. I got attacked by someone back there, but ever since then everyone has been pretty polite. For monster culture, at least.”

“A-attacked?! Oh gosh, then she already…”

“‘She’? You know her?”

“Um!! No!! I mean, yes! But I!-I don’t really know her! I mean-!!!”

Alphys kept getting more nervous in her self-corrections until she just turned into a stuttering mess. You consider intervening, but suddenly she goes quiet. Before you can ask anything, you feel a powerful surge of electricity shock every nerve in your body. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Congrats on making it to chapter 2!  
> It's a small-time gig over here, but if you wanna talk about StorySpift, theorize about it, get sneak peeks, or ask why I bother spending time on this, feel free to consider stopping by at my [Discord~!](https://discord.gg/cVr4W6J)


	3. the anime chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> warning: weeaboo

The pain only lasts a second before the flashing white fades away and you’re back in the alley. Looking around the alley, you see that Alphys is gone. Your second observation is the entire environment around you is now painted in dull shades of ivory overlaying the barely noticeable undertone of blues and purples the buildings and ground previously had.

Almost believing that electric attack knocked you out and gave you color blindness, you walk out of the alley to confirm your surroundings. It looks to be the same town, but in the same faded coloring. What you notice as different, however, is the severe lack of outskirts. It seemed that the entire world vanished after a certain distance away from you. Before you can investigate, you hear a familiar voice.

“I-it’s fine if you don’t want to, Undyne. We can just, um, take it easy! Here! For a bit, at least…” You see Alphys sitting on a bench facing away, but she’s colored in the same ivory-toned monochrome as the rest of the environment. Beside her is a fish-like monster. They look highly distraught and conflicted.

“For a bit, sure, but…!”

“I-I… You left a lot b-behind, but, he can h-handle things,” Alphys shuffles slightly closer to her, “Even if… if something does happen, they’ll have to go through you first, you know?

Undyne sat in silence for a bit, staring intensely at the ground.

“... I know that I don’t know what to do. I can’t just *take* a human soul, it doesn’t work like that,” she grumbled.

“Y-you can still get a-an idea from the king, right? He h-had to have something to get around, well, that whole situation.”

“He never even had *one*, and still didn’t- I just-! ARGH!” Undyne sprang from the seat, scratching at her head in a vain attempt at idea searching. After a moment of silence, she took a step away and turned her back to Alphys.

“U-Undyne, we can s-stil-”

“Alphys,” she turned her head to the dino, “how about we go watch some Madoka Magica?”

“... Sure, Undyne. Let’s go.” Alphys got up to walk with Undyne, hand in hand with Undyne.

You decide to try tailing them, but suddenly your vision starts fading. 

As you try to move forward, your vision blacks out entirely.

You reach your hand out.

A hat is caught in your hand.

As you blink your eyes back into focus, you find yourself standing outside of the alley, the same dim blue-bricked alley you were electrocuted in. The perpetrator of the act now standing in front of you, grasping at their head looking for the hat you nabbed.

“h-Hey!! Who’s taking my-” She turns around, shock spreading across her face, “y-y-y-y-you?! But I- and you were- then I- but you- and then you- I- how- wh-”

“Do you like anime” you ask.

“I… um… nyes?” 

“The scene where Madoka used her last grief seed on Homura, asking her to go back in time to stop all the tragedy. It was really touching.”

“OHMYGOSH! AND HOW HOMURA HAD TO GO BACK IN TIME OVER AND OVER, TRYING TO KEEP HER PROMISE!! IT WAS SO GOOD!!! AND THEN-”

It appears you managed to appeal to her nerdy side, instantly calming her down. Just to hype her up again. You simply nod along as Alphys proceeds to talk for longer than anyone should about the dramatic irony and tragedies surrounding magical girls, witches, and time travel. After she finishes recapping the entire plotline and several monsters pass by giving you two confused stares, Alphys breathes for the first time in the entire exchange.

“- and you can *totally* tell kyubey actually knew the truth, despite what fan theories might-” Alphys freezes as her eyes widen, “ohmygosh, h-h-how long have I been…?”   
  
“Only about ten minutes.”

“I-I didn’t mean to- I mean, you asked so I-”

“It’s fine, I know you’re not a bad person.”

“I… sor- er, thanks…” 

“So... how come you electrocuted me earlier?”

“I… I really am *so* sorry about that. I j-just… panicked… but my problems, I shouldn’t just act out like that.” Alphys pensively rubbed the back of her neck.

“I’m somehow not hurt from it, so it’s fine. If you want to apologize, tell me this: how do I get out of this cave?”

Her eyes widened at the question, “G-get out??”

“Yes. Which way is the exit. I had someone guiding me earlier, but…” You look around what you can see of the town. Greatness is nowhere in sight. “... It looks like they got lost, too.”

“Uhm, I uh, can’t really- don’t really remember which way lead to, um, the rest of the k-kingdom.. b-but! I can a-atleast bring you to my home, and - you probably haven’t eaten at all, right? I have some stuff, I mean-” Alphys motioned her hand to the bags she had been carrying, “I was getting some stuff u-until… you know… but!-”

Before she could continue her awkward rambling, your stomach moaned. “Next best thing.”

“Great! Th-then, um, I’ll lead the way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit shorter chapter, but now everything is fine and dandy again! Right?  
> As now-usual, if you want some place to talk about this fic or others of mine, or wanna just drop in to say hi, you're more than welcome to my [Discord~!](https://discord.gg/cVr4W6J)


	4. this is kinda awkward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> not sponsored by maruchan instant ramen noodles

“O-oh, and um, sorry about the mess.” Alphys nervously opens the door and leads you inside the large and strange dome-shaped home. Despite Alphys’ warning, the home was actually very tidy. A frontroom with a green couch and television, a kitchen in the far right side of the house, and against the back wall were stairs leading down and a door.

“That’s um, ou-my bedroom. A-anyway! We have some i-instant ramen, some leftover spaghetti, some -”

A familiar voice interrupted her, “Alphys, who are you talki-” 

The bedroom door was open, and standing in its doorway was Undyne. It wasn’t clear before, but it appears Undyne is the same person that tried turning you into a kebab, as she was in the middle of taking off the breastplate. You stare at Undyne. Undyne stares at you. Alphys is looking between the both of you, sweating up a storm. Before you can say anything, Undyne goes back into the bedroom and slams the door shut.

“Undyne wait I-I can explain!” Alphys rushes towards the door before turning back to you at the door, “j-just a minute, okay?” She enters the bedroom, leaving you alone in the only other room in the house. You think about checking out the downstairs, but you know that that is not the proper thing a house guest should do, let alone the house guest of someone who tried to kill you on-sight. Instead of taking a seat in where your almost-killer might want to sit, you resolve yourself to standing. You barely hear their talking in the other room, but it doesn’t seem to sound too serious.

After a few minutes, Alphys slowly walks out from the bedroom, shoulders sunk, but immediately tries to perk up when she sees you standing.

“U-!Um, I’ll just, get you some ramen. I-is that okay?”

You nod your head.

“O-okay then. You c-can, uh, take a seat.”

You decide to sit at the seat closest to the wall with a view of the house. You patiently wait while Alphys opens a package Maruchan Ramen Noodle Soup Picante Beef Flavor into a bowl and pours water in. She puts it into the microwave and sets it for low-heat five minute cook.

As the microwave begins whirring, the bedroom door opens as Undyne walks through. She doesn’t make eye contact with your or Alphys, and instead plops onto the couch and turns on the television. 

Four minutes and thirty seconds.

Alphys is still facing the microwave, probably too nervous to look anywhere else. Or she’s trying to think of something to say, but is shooting down every idea due to the circumstances. Undyne changes the channel to a sports channel talking about football.

Four minutes.

Alphys tries sneaking glances at Undyne, probably worried about how she’s feeling knowing that her former prey is now being served cheap microwavable food in her kitchen. Undyne has not moved since laying on the couch and is silently watching football. Curious, you squint and focus on the television to see what monster football is like. All you can hear is a lot of grunting, but as you see the various camera angles panning around the event, you begin to notice this is not any football you’ve ever watched.

Three minutes.

You watch as a purple monster with large spheres on their four feet tries to kick at its opponent. Unfortunately for the purple monster, their maroon competitor is bouncing and balancing on their tail, dodging the purple monster’s barrage of kicks. Unfortunately, the maroon monster is unable to sneak in any meaningful blows, turning the match into a temporary stalemate. You feel a gaze peering at you, and turn to see Alphys nervously side-eyeing you. Her eyes pleading for something, but you were never good at reading faces. You shrug and go back to watching the football match.

Two minutes.

King Flex manages to turn the tide of battle by backing Laser-Leg Astro into a corner, forcing her to use both her hind and front legs for balance as to not fall out of the ring. It seemed like Flex was just about to win, but as he sprang himself forward, Astro ducked and slid under her sailing opponent. The crowd started cheering and booing, only to be interrupted by a sudden channel change.

“Ugh, 'course Astro would chicken out,” bemoaned Undyne. Conceding to never knowing the results, you refocus in on the current channel, which seems to be a news channel. You see a ghost reporting on decreasing criminal activity in a place called Steamill thanks to the dutiful watch of the royal guard captain. Before you can see the interview, Undyne changes the channel back to the football match. It’s a post-game interview with the winner, Laser-Leg Astro.

One minute.

You hadn’t been moving much during this time, but you realize you had begun leaning forward to see the television. You sit yourself up straight and look back at Alphys. She’s facing towards Undyne again, but shaking a lot less. It occurs to you that she is probably also watching the television now, too.

Thirty seconds.

You hear Undyne sigh as the television goes black. She stands up, setting the remote down, and walks to the front door.

“I’m going for a swim.”

“A-alright. T-take care…”

The door shut, leaving you and Alphys alone in the quiet whirring of the microwave.  
  
_B- click_

Before it had a chance to ring, Alphys opened the microwave. She hurriedly placed the bowl in front of you, rushing to the kitchen cabinets before rushing back to give you a fork.

“Thank you.”

“Y-yeah.”

You quietly eat the ramen. It’s spicy, but not overly spicy. The picante bits add an occasional punch, but you can taste the mass of sodium in every slurp. Soon enough, you finish the noodles and bits, and pull the bowl to your face to drink the soup. You sigh out in content and wipe your face with your shirt.

“Thanks for the food.”

“Y-yeah…”

You get up to take the bowl to the sink, to clean it, but Alphys grabs it from you and places it next to the sink before turning to face you again. 

“S-so, um, normally I would o-offer the couch to uh, sleep on for the night-”

“No, it’s fine. I can find some place else. It wouldn’t be right to intrude when…”

“Right…”

You both stand in the kitchen silent for a few seconds.

“I’ll… go.”

“O-okay, take care. And g-good luck with the exit.

“Thanks.”

You exit Alphys and Undyne’s home, waving goodbye and not looking back once. A lot of things just happened, while simultaneously nothing happened. As you make your way back to the town to find an inn, you remember something.

“Where the heck is Greatness?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Most people usually write their UT AU Home replacements a lot more light-hearted, maybe a bit dramatic, but now we can add Uncomfortable to the mix!  
> As usual, if you want some place to talk about this fic or others of mine, or wanna just drop in to say hi, you're more than welcome to my [Discord~!](https://discord.gg/cVr4W6J)


	5. so we back in the mine,

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> frisk explores and gets more than they bargained for

Walking through the town again, you thank the simplistic design of the signboards hanging by some of the buildings’ doors for having no writing. You hadn’t thought about how monsters write, but you can’t imagine it’s the same as on the surface. Soon enough, you find a building with a bed drawn on its signboard. You walk inside to see dozens of beds.

“Welcome Welcome!” greets a three-eyed, humanoid squid monster, “Welcome to Wetland’s Bed Emporium! How may we help you sleep tonight?”

You dodge a few slow cotton-stuffing magic bullets, “Oh, uh, sorry. Misread the sign. I was looking for an inn, some place to sleep for the night.”

“Ohhh~! Well, we can certainly do bed rentals! A single flat-mattress bed costs 120G, or you can choose one of our more exotic beds,” they gesture a tentacle to the far corner of the store towards a double-king-sized bed, “they come waterproof, fireproof, knifeproof, earthquakeproof, auto-cooling, and with memory foam! All for a mere 7,400G~”

You realize now you probably don’t have monster currency, but still frantically check your pockets. You feel a bulge in your left pocket and pull out the hotdog purse. Checking inside, you find a bunch of coins and photos. You decide to check the photos later and move to inspect the coins. Despite all being identical in shape, texture, and design, they are conveniently marked with their monetary amounts, ranging from 1G, 5G, 10G, 50G, and more. “How much for one night?”

“Hmmmm, well for one of our regular beds it’ll be about 10G to cover maintenance.”

You can settle for 10G, but if that deluxe bed is cheap enough… “And the exotic bed?”

“Oh that one? On the house, you don’t even have to do a thing to keep it clean, it’s indestructible! As long as you promise to recommend our store to your friends, you’re free to sleep on it for the night!”

“Deal.” You marvel at the technological ingenuity of monsterkind, alongside the overall kindness of everyone you’ve met so far. Almost everyone. “I’ll be back later, then.”

“Okey dokey! Enjoy your visit in Wetland!” the shopkeeper waved a tentacle goodbye as you left the store.

Back in the town plaza, you open your hotdog purse and check what photos were left inside. There’s a variety of them, all with different people and different locations. While a few resemble the Wetland environment you’re in, there are some of a snowy forest with lava pools, a misty marsh with windmills, a red-glowing city, and a snowy castle. The monsters in some of these pictures are just as diverse, from ghosts, skeletons, bipedal goats, dogs, spiders, fire people, and more. You wonder if all these places are actually under a mountain, but Greatness said this was a kingdom, so maybe they are.

You look at one of the snowy pictures of some monster children, but in the background is a giant open door made of the same material and color of the buildings around you. It’s not much, but now you have a lead - some place cold with a giant door. With this in mind, you start off in a new direction away from the town, one that isn’t toward the mines you came from nor Alphys and Undyne’s home.

* * *

It sure would be nice if Greatness was still around. You feel you’ve taken much more of a scenic route than necessary. Over the past few hours, you’ve done a few things. You’ve learned that Wetland has a lake with a river system flowing down off a cliff. After asking the local fish monsters what was down there, they said some strong fish swam down and swam back up about a year ago, telling them that the river ended at a bunch of cracks in the wall, meaning it was not a way out.

This leads to the second thing you learned: there is a magic barrier cast on the mountain, preventing anyone from escaping. There had been humans that fell down the mountain before you, but they have since been dealt with. You didn’t feel like you needed to ask what they meant by that, so you left it at that.

In your attempt to find the mystery door, you even backtrack to the mineshaft corridors at the beginning of the cave. You walk down the rocky halls for long enough that you almost memorize the entire layout. You eventually end up in the room you met Greatness, your missing guide. Settling on the idea of never seeing him again, you decide to check the other route that Undyne had arrived from.

Turning the corner, you find yourself in a relatively open space with boulders, rocks, a small waterfall, and holes and cracks across the entire area. You take a guess that Undyne had been venting out her anger here, somewhere far from Alphys or anyone else she could hurt. She easily could, considering the damage went from spear holes a meter deep and the creeping realization these rocks used to be boulders, or even parts of the wall. It’s a miracle this place hadn’t caved in from how hard it looks like she was going at it. Looking at the ceiling, you slip on the rocky debris and fall head-first into a nearby boulder.

You push yourself up off the ivory cave floor and look around the yellow-tinted monochrome environment. A sense of deja vu comes over you but is quickly dismissed when you hear sounds of a struggle. Not willing to take chances, you duck behind a nearby boulder and peer around the side to see the commotion. In front of you, a semi-armored Undyne is in combat with a floating training dummy.

“HA!! Try harder, Harder, HARDER!!!” the dummy spawned over a dozen mini-dummies across the room, all firing a barrage of cotton bullets and missiles. Undyne swiftly smacked away the cotton bullets with a magic spear, then threw it into the ceiling. As the missiles closed in, Undyne leaped up towards the lodged spear, firing lesser magic spears at the dummies and destroying most of them with amazing accuracy, one spear coming dangerously close to your hiding spot. The missiles turned up and homed in on Undyne, still hanging from the ceiling.

“Slow, SLOW SLOW!!!!!” shouted the dummy, stamping its stand into the ground. Another dozen mini-dummies appeared and shot more cotton bullets in random horizontal directions, turning the ground into a bullet hell. You turn back to watching Undyne, the missiles closing in. Pulling herself upside-down, she plants her feet onto the ceiling and launches herself off, pulling the spear with her. In the second that she’s in the air, she holds out her spear and rapidly spins herself both right-side up and in circles like a cyclone. The missiles lose fuel and explode on the ceiling as Undyne crashes into the ground, scattering away the cluster of bullets in a powerful whirlwind. 

There’s a pause in the fight as the dust settles, but soon enough you see the dummy speeding towards Undyne, a knife floating where its arm would be if it had one. Knife meets spear as Undyne parries the strike, summoning a spear in her other hand and stabbing the dummy in the head - or so you thought, but with the dust completely settled, you see that she’s merely holding it past its head

“You’ll have to try harder than THAT if you want to get a sneak attack on me, pal!” Undyne boasted, despawning her spears and taking off her helmet.

“HaHAHA! You really got me there, Miss Undyne!” The dummy replied. It seemed like they were actually close friends, now casually sitting together and chatting after that intense fight climax. “I really couldn’t imagine anyone but you being our qu-”

“Don’t.”

“A-ah, right, so, same time next week?”

“Yeah sounds good.” Feeling as though you’ve seen enough, you move to sit yourself down against the boulder, but accidentally slip, almost falling while kicking a rock across the room. As you try to land, a spear flies over your head and into the wall behind you.

“Who’s there?! Show yourself!” Undyne shouts out, probably aiming another spear your way. You resign yourself to capture and decide to stand up, hands up, but your vision starts blurring as you stand up, fading away as the last thing you see is Undyne running towards you.

Blinking your eyes, your vision comes back and the sepia environment is replaced with its dark blue original form. Both Undyne and the dummy are nowhere to be seen, confusingly. You wonder what these visions are, being that this is the second time this has happened. Both times, the color faded from the world and people, and events were happening that weren’t occurring in real time. You consider calling them flashbacks, but at the end of that last one, Undyne _noticed_ you were there. Does this mean you weren’t looking back into the past, but actually going back into the past? You have no evidence one way or another, but one thing comes to mind amidst all this.

Human magic. Greatness had mentioned in his monologue of a lesson that human souls, while being stronger than monster souls, also came in seven different colors with abilities correlative to each. Yours is yellow, which means you can shoot magic bullets yourself, but perhaps there’s more to this than originally thought.

Those thoughts will also have to end here, because you’re getting a headache from this. It’s been long enough, so you decide to go back to Riverton to sleep for the night.

* * *

While there’s no sky or moon, the underground seems a bit darker than usual, like it’s setting the stage for night time. There are also fewer monsters wandering around town, giving it much more of a night-time feeling

“Frisk! There you are!”

You whip around to see Greatness, waving to you from down the street.

“Where did you go?” you ask.

“Who, me? It was you who vanished before Greatness’ eyes! You decided to chase that pangolin-type monster down the dead-end alley and then I saw an old friend and wanted to say hello! When I looked down the alley, you were already gone!” 

You consider a rebuttal, but realize what he’s saying is very true.

“So, are you ready to move on to the next area?”

“No, I’ve been wandering for hours. And I also have a deal to upkeep for Wetland’s Bed Emporium, the most comfortable and varied beds in all of Wetland. No one can call me a liar.”

“Getting some rest, then? Very well! I will meet you again in the morning!”

You wave to Greatness as you walk through the bed store’s door, “Goodnight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally getting to the end of the Ruins-replacement arc! I wonder where that door ended up being...  
> As usual, if you want some place to talk about this fic or others of mine, or wanna just drop in to say hi, you're more than welcome to my [Discord~!](https://discord.gg/cVr4W6J)
> 
> Next Chapter: The Way Out


	6. The Way Out

“Have a sleepy-swell day!”

You wave to the squid clerk as you leave the bed emporium. Taking in a deep breath, you smell the usual wet dirt in the morning air as you stretch your arms. That deluxe exotic bed left you better than rested, filling you with energy you didn’t know you could have. At worst, you feel you could sprint from the start of this cave to Alphys’ home without breaking a sweat. Fortunately, you doubt anything eventful will happen today.

“Good morning, Frisk!” Greatness greets you, only seconds after you exit the building.   
  
“Good morning. Where did you stay?”

“Right here!” he points to a small alley next to the bed emporium.

“... you slept in the alley?”

“Greatness has no need for sleep! Greatness was merely waiting!”

“Whatever you say,” you remember that it’s easier to go along with whatever these types of people say. “Where to, Greatness?”

“It’s not too far from here, just follow me!” he says, trotting off faster than you’d expect a toy to move.

You wonder back to yesterday, trying to wrap your head around the existence of magic and monsters. Not only that, but that passing through the barrier had woken magic abilities inside yourself as well. After getting some distance outside of the town, you decide to consult Greatness again.

“Greatness, is there more to human magic than the magic shots I can do?”

“Why yes there is! Each type of human soul has its own unique properties that they can manifest!”

“Like time travel?”

“Manipulation of time is one, yes! Have you already tried it?”

You stop walking, caught off guard by the direct answer, taking a second before continuing. “I think so? I just get hit and suddenly everything goes monochrome, like watching some old film.”

“Yup! Definitely Flashback magic!”

“Flashback magic…? Okay so what does it-”

“We’re here!” interrupted by Greatness, you stop and look at the familiar sight. Without realizing it, you had walked directly to Alphys and Undyne’s home.

“Isn’t this-”

“It’s in the basement, I’ll wait for you up ahead!” Greatness cheerfully said, hopping up to open the door and walk inside.

The basement. If the exit was in their house, then Alphys had to have known. You wonder why Alphys had lied to you, and then remember that she was living with Undyne. Undyne was someone important, but she ran away from those duties. She even knew the king, so perhaps she took the king’s place? She wanted to collect your soul, but something was in the way of that. She’s clearly a skilled fighter, what could be stopping her from…?

You push all those thoughts aside, clearly too uninformed to figure anything out. With frustration from being lied to and confusion behind each step, you rudely shove the door open.

“HEY, who’s slamming the door?!” Undyne shouts, now sitting up on the couch. “Hey, punk, what do you think you’re-”

“You’re the last person I want to see right now, you runaway.” Undyne froze, a mixture of confusion and anger in her eyes. “I won’t pretend I know your life, but I know enough of you being a coward that couldn’t face their responsibilities. Out of every monster I’ve met, you’re the strongest one, and here you are sitting on a couch watching television like nothing is wrong. Like you don’t have a duty to uphold. Unlike you, I have a goal in my life, and I plan to give it the justice it deserves.”

Without looking at her, you walk past the couch and down the stairs. Unlike the furnished house, the downstairs consisted of only an empty, dark hallway. You see a turn up ahead and simply keep walking. Greatness is nowhere around, so you guess he went far on ahead. Considering this is a straight path so far, he probably assumed you wouldn’t get lost this time. Turning the corner, you see a clearing up ahead. At the other end of that clearing you see a large door, one that looks strikingly similar to the one you saw in the photo. 

Glad to have finally found the exit you were looking for, you start walking faster. Around you, you see the clearing is a room much larger than you expected. You also realize there are some scratches and holes in the walls and floors, just like…

A chill runs down your spine. You turn around and

a spear flies directly in front of your face, mere centimeters from your nose as it crashes into the door. The faint smell of burnt iron fades as you face the source of the attack.

“WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING, PUNK?!” Undyne stood at the other end of the hallway, her face scrunched in fury as she glared daggers at you. 

“You wanna talk JUSTICE?!” she summons a spear to her right hand, 

“Justice would be monsters living the peace they deserve on the surface!” she summons another to her left hand, 

“Justice would be humans paying the price for locking us under this mountain!!” both spears brightly glow as she starts stomping towards you, 

“JUSTICE would be ripping out your SOUL and using it to break the barrier, FREEING MONSTERKIND!!!” Undyne breaks into a sprint, rushing towards you like a bull full of rage.

You sidestep to the left of Undyne as she thrusts a spear towards you, then tumble back as she throws her other spear into the ground towards your feet. It seems a fight is inevitable, and while you don’t want to lethally damage anyone, you’ll be skewered if you don’t fight back. You have no choice but to fight magic with magic.

Undyne raises an arm, summoning more spears behind her. As she launches them toward you, you aim your hand and start shooting them down. You only hit three of them as the rest get by, piercing the ground around you, but one comes too close and scratches the side of your thigh. Reflexively grimacing, you glance down to see a rip in your pants but no blood. 

Before you realize it, Undyne already closes in on you, spear in hand. You quickly try to shoot her hand, and while only one shot actually hits her arm, you use that moment to dive between her legs and fire a few shots at her back.

“NGAAHHH!! JUST GIVE UP, YOU WEASELY PUNK!!” she exclaims, throwing more spears. You roll back onto your feet and circle around the room to dodge the spears. As the barrage lessens, you take aim again to shoot her. You would try aiming for non-vital locations, but running and shooting is already out of your league enough. Few shots actually land, prompting Undyne to focus on blocking your shots with a spear. You stop and steady your hand, landing all your shots on her spear and a couple on her legs, when suddenly the spear shatters from a shot. Before you can continue your counterattack, you see behind the fizzling shards of the spear that Undyne is smiling. Out of the corner of your eye, you notice a distinct cyan glow emanating from the ground.

You land on your back, just barely dodging the spears launched from the ground like a spike trap right under your feet. More circles of light begin appearing on the ground around you, giving you just barely enough time to get back up and run. It seems like trying to fight Undyne head-on is hopeless, considering it feels like she’s still holding back. You can either try to flee from the action or convince Undyne to stop fighting, and only one of those options seems much more realistic. Taking a quick look at the door, you dash towards it and past Undyne, hoping she doesn’t realize in time.

“WHERE do you think YOU’RE going, PUNK?!” as if on cue, a stream of spears shot up from the ground in front of the door, embedding their tips into the walls. As you look to the other exit, a similar barricade forms at the hallway entrance, locking you in the room with Undyne. “You wanted me to face my duty? I’M DAMN WELL GONNA FACE IT!!”

It seems your earlier venting really got to her. Your only chance to end this dance without becoming a pincushion is to strike at her emotions.

You aim your hand towards Undyne and start shooting down the incoming spears while walking along the edge of the room. You keep a watch on the ground, sidestepping the occasional floor spear. “This duty, how come you’re only facing it now?” You sidestep one spear and duck under a flying spear you missed, “How do you know you’ll actually follow through?”

“SHUT IT! All I need to do is take your soul and monsterkind will be one step closer to freedom!” Undyne runs towards you again, spears in both hands. You try to shoot them down, but she toughs it out and thrusts them forward across each other. You try grabbing one from her grip, only to be pulled back and flung off across the room. Your back hits the wall as you fall on all fours, pushing yourself back up before Undyne can act again. Note to self, never try to grab anything from anyone ever again.

“You say ‘one step closer’, but,” You roll out of the way of another floor spear and quickly stand back up, “what about the other humans that fell?” You keep shooting the spears she throws, but it feels like she’s only throwing more and more, “Weren’t you able to get *their* souls? Or did something go wrong?”

“SHUT UP AND JUST DIE!!!” Undyne’s face contorts with rage as a swarm of spears appear behind her, rapidly shooting off one by one towards you. You try to outrun them, diving at the past possible second, but a spear cuts through the side of your leg. You pull your leg close, only to see no blood again, but instead a dark red color over the small area of impact. You barely have any time to recover before the ground starts glowing beneath you. You roll out of the way of more ground spears and stand up to start shooting again.

“Maybe... they didn’t die, and escaped,” your aim gets better under the pressure as more of Undyne’s onslaught of spears get shot down, “or maybe, they *did* die, but you lost their souls?”

“We didn’t lose ANYTHING!! Those humans gave up their lives and…!” the spears stopped, Undyne caught up in her own words. You take the pause to catch your breath, hand still aimed at Undyne. “NGAHH!!! Just GIVE UP already!!” she aims her own hand forward, the ground below you a swarms with cyan lights. You throw yourself against the wall to dodge the spears, but realize too late that the wall began glowing as well. You try to duck down, but a spear clips the side of your shoulder, the same sharp pain resonating through your right arm. As painful as it is, it seems the angrier she gets, the closer to the truth you are. You decide if your hunch is right, it’s worth taking a risk.

You lower your hand and start walking towards Undyne. She throws a few spears at you, but as you dodge them, she conjures one to her hand and starts running towards you. You keep walking, closing your eyes as she raises her spear. Expecting a sharp pain, you’re instead met with a kick to the chest and the hard impact of the floor. From the ground, you see Undyne leering at you, her brow furrowing in confusion. She stomps towards where you landed, giving you ample time to get up. You stay on the ground.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Undyne stands over you, borderline snarling her words.

Put under this sort of pressure, you try and focus over the pain of your injuries, “If my soul can be used to break the barrier, then take it.” Undyne stamps her boot against your chest, her arm raised with spear in hand, “But, you can only take my life if you use my soul to break the barrier. If that’s not what happens, then you have no right to kill me.”

“What the hell are you saying…?! Of course it would…” the spear shakes in her hand, “Of COURSE your soul should…!”

“Then do it,” you clench your own fists, putting up the strongest act you can muster, “What are you hesitating for?”

“I’m…” Undyne closes her eyes, “I’m NOT-” her eyes shoot open, spear raised, “HESITATING!!”

Undyne slams the spear down directly toward you. Fallen into a hole just to be killed by an unmasked menace, what a blunt tragedy this is. You reminisce about your life and your choices, realizing this truly might be the end. But it isn’t.

You open your own eyes to see the spear practically buried in the ground to the left of your head. You look up to see Undyne’s face, her eyes forcing themselves shut as she grimaces. “Damnit…” she drops to her knee beside you, facing away, “This damn curse, making everything so hard…!” 

You cautiously sit yourself upright, “Curse?”

“Any human killed by a monster’s magic, they just come back as a monster.” Undyne stands up, still looking away. “I could have killed you from the start, taken your soul, and bring monsterkind one step closer to freedom,” the spear dissipates as she looks towards the door, now free of spears, “some leader I’m supposed to be, huh? I’m even complaining to my enemy, of all people…”

You think about what Undyne is saying to you, trying to think of some way to console her. “If you can’t do anything with magic, then what about using something, well, not magic?”

“... what.”

“Yeah, like instead of a magic spear, you use a physical, metal spear?”

“...”

“...”

“... That’s…” Undyne dejectedly begins to turn down the idea, but a flash of inspiration washes across her face, “... a gREAT IDEA!!”

You sit slightly dumbfounded as the weight of what you just said hit you, “uh, is it?”

“OF COURSE IT IS!” she shouts, arms raised in excitement, “If I just use the giant sword Alphys and I fixed up from the dump, something made by HUMANS,” she picks you up off the ground by the shoulders, “then that means you really CAN offer up your soul! ALRIGHT!!!” she fistpumps into the air, dropping you on your feet, “Stay right here, I’ll run upstairs and grab my sword!”

You watch as Undyne sprints down the hallway you both came from. You rush to the door, only for it to slam open right in front of you.

“Frisk! Great job dealing with Undyne!” Greatness congratulates you, standing in the middle of the doorway. “However, it seems you’ve done such a great job, she’s more excited than ever to get back to hunting humans! But! Fret not, for Greatness shall hold her at bay while you make your escape!”

“Are you sure about that? You look like a toy.”

“Fret! Not! Greatness is MUCH more than just a mere toy!” he struck a pose, his hand on his puffed-out chest. “You don’t have much of a choice right now, either, so you best begin your escape!”

“Right. Thanks. Stay safe,” you say as you start running down the next hall. You would like to have a stern word with whoever put a hallway after a door with a hallway, but you focus entirely on running from what would be certain doom.

Soon enough, you see another clearing up ahead. As you get closer, the temperature starts steadily dropping. At the other end, the final door stands, cracked slightly open. Greatness probably came back through here, you think to yourself. With no hesitation towards the cold, you burst through the door, ready to face whatever came your way next.

Your eyes adjust to the drastic change in lighting as the bright white slowly turns into a wintery snow. Adorning the treetops and ground around you is snow, snow, and more snow. Without a moment to lose, you take your first step forward in a new territory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so one set of doors close, and another door opens. Updates are probably going to be much slower after this for life reasons, sorry, but I! wanna see this through to the end! It'd feel too rude of me to lead up all this just to can it after the ruins-replacement, but there's still much much for me to do... ･ﾟ･(｡>ω<｡)･ﾟ･  
> As usual, if you want some place to talk about this fic or others of mine, or wanna just drop in to say hi, you're more than welcome to my [Discord~!](https://discord.gg/cVr4W6J)


	7. cool campers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> snow is cold but hearts is warm

It’s been about twenty minutes since you escaped from Wetland. You avoided the main path that extended from the door, expecting that you would be more easily found by Undyne if you went there. So here you are, wandering in a snowy forest aimlessly, the earlier adrenaline rush completely gone. Being fair, you admit that this snow is somehow much less colder than snow you’ve experienced on the surface. Perhaps it’s due to monster magic, you guess.

Putting aside the negatives, you admit that this is quite an impressive forest for being underground. Earlier on, you tried following the cave wall to the left of the door, but only ended up at a cliffside. From there, you could see what seemed like acres of forest down below, and even along the cliffside further away. It seems if Undyne is going to continue pursuing you, she’ll be finding a needle in the haystack of this forest.

Saying that you’ve been completely blindly wandering wouldn’t be accurate, as on that cliffside you saw a small stream of smoke from deeper into the forest. Smoke means other monsters, and as long as they don’t know you’re a human, then everything will probably be fine. Probably. Speaking of probably, you suddenly hear what was probably the Wetland cave door being smashed open, so you pick up the pace in making it to the smoke source.

* * *

Over your time of trudging through the snowy forest, you’ve noticed two things. Firstly, there’s scarcely any animals. You haven’t seen anything that could be a bird, a fox, a bear, a rabbit - nothing. It makes you wonder if all the wildlife in this place turned into magic monsters or if none ever made it down here. 

Before you can ponder the implications that means for the ecosystem, the second thing came clear to your attention: For as snowy as this place is, you’ve hardly felt as cold as you probably should feel. It seems especially bright in this area of the underground, but you can’t see above the trees in the thick of this forest, and you didn’t notice anything back at the cliffside earlier. You think to yourself that there is still a lot to learn about monsters.

Speaking of monsters, it seems you’ve also lost the smoke trail from earlier, both from losing your way across a few stray collapsed trees as well as no longer being able to see the smoke itself. You pep yourself back up, reminding yourself this is probably your only chance of slipping under Undyne’s radar.

_ Krrump, krrump, krrump, _

You hear the sound of footsteps nearby. Unsure if it’s Undyne, you dash behind a couple of close trees before you realize your own rushed footsteps make sound too.

“Hello? Is someone there?” the person asked, his voice sounding surprisingly deep and smooth, like one of those radio hosts you used to listen to. Except this person paces out their words instead of running them. “If you are concerned about something, then rest assured I mean you no harm.” You don’t hear them taking any more steps, possibly meaning they truly do intend to wait for you. Trusting what the radio voice man said, you slowly step out from behind the trees.

Some paces ahead, you see a large monster with big horns, white fur, and a bright pink floral-print vest with frayed ends at the shoulders where the sleeves would be. He has a blonde beard and hair, a furry snout, and is wearing a mustard-yellow shirt and worn down khaki pants under his vest. He almost looks like a cow-derivative monster with his horns and big belly, if it weren’t for his furry paws and furry bare feet. Before you can fully realize his expression is that of wide-eyed shock, he starts briskly walking towards you. Increasingly weary from wandering in a snowy forest, you brace yourself for another potential fight, but,

“Goodness, child, you’re hurt all over!” he exclaims as he gets down on one knee in front of you. He moves his hand towards your shoulder, and while you would normally pull yourself back in this situation, for some reason you let the cow man continue. From his paw hand came a ball-shaped green aura that felt like it was sinking into your wound. As you turned your head to see what was going on, all that you saw remained was the cut on your shirt. “I understand why you were so wary if you have sustained such damage,” he said, moving his hand over to your legs. The same green magic happened again, and again your wounds were healed. In truth, they were starting to sting badly once the rush of battle was over and you began wandering, but whatever this monster was doing was rejuvenating almost all of that lost energy.

“Thank you, um…”

“Oh golly, where are my manners?” he stood, up, now towering over you up close, “my name is Asgore Dreemurr, but you can simply call me Asgore.” 

“Thanks for the, uh, healing, Asgore. My name is Frisk,” you respond. You note that he mentioned a last name, unlike any of the other monsters you met, especially Undyne or Alphys. You don’t know why, but you feel like this has some significance to who he is.

“It is a pleasure to meet you Frisk. And don’t mind it, I’m just doing what anyone would.” The two of you stood for a moment, unsure of what to say next. “Say, Frisk,” Asgore broke the silence, “I will not pry into how you got those injuries, nor why, but I do know that not too many folks simply happen to be wandering around this forest.” Asgore pointed back over his shoulder with his thumb, “If you would like, you can join my son and I on our camping trip - for the time being, at least.”

The smoke trail from earlier. If what Asgore said about this forest is true, then that smoke had to have been from his campfire. “Sure, that sounds great,” you don’t have any other options, so you gladly take up his offer.

“Great! The campsite is a short distance away, just follow me,” he said, turning around to start walking. You follow him, somehow already feeling comfortable around this stranger. You worry whether or not he’ll figure out you’re a human, but somewhere deep down, you want to believe it will be alright.

* * *

“Here we are!” He exclaimed upon entering the small clearing. You’re not too familiar with camping, but the setup he has seems to be pretty good - A large tent is propped up near a tree, big enough to fit a family, there’s some a couple foldable chairs set up near a compactable table with a mat across the top, a fire pit is set up in the center with a couple coolers nearby. Not even counting the strewn about outdoors gear and bags, it’s already a pretty good setup. You believe it’s safe to say that either Asgore, his son, or both of them are very fond of camping.

“Pretty nice setup” you comment.

“I’m glad you think so. It would certainly be no good to put forth half the effort into something that can be as fun,” he said, a soft smile growing on his face from what you can see. “Now, let me see if I have something to patch up those clothes of yours,” Asgore walked over to one of the bags near the table, attempting to sift through its contents with his large hands. “Hmm, that’s strange… Where did I put it?” he wondered out loud, switching to another bag. As he was searching, his now-noticeably floppy ears perked up for a second as he zipped up the bag.

“Frisk, could I ask you to search for a lighter in the tent? For the campfire later on,” he asks.

“Sure, anything to help.” 

“It should be in the back somewhere in there.”

You pull the loose tent door flap open and walk in, slightly awed for a second at how large it really is and the light attempting to poke through the colored, semi-translucent roof. You try to search in the back of the somehow messy tent, but to no avail. You then try to search the front and the sides, but still no sign of the lighter. You consider opening the tent flap to tell Asgore you can’t find it, but are stopped when you hear the sound of crunching footsteps rapidly approaching in the snow.

“ASGORE!!” a familiar voice shouts out. You can’t see clearly through the tent, but you can see the figure of someone thin but close to Asgore’s height run up to him.

“Undyne, it is nice to see you again. What brings you all the way out here?” he asks in his usual smooth, welcoming demeanor.

“Have you seen a human come through here? About this tall, orange shirt, kinda messy brown hair?” You realize that even if Asgore doesn’t know what a human is, that description is more than enough to rat you out. Your fear starts rapidly increasing under the idea of having to face both Undyne as well as someone as large and imposing as Asgore.

“Hmmmm…” he hesitates for a moment, “I cannot say that I have. Are you saying another human has fallen down?”

“YEAH, and they gave me the BEST way to get around our problem, but then they RAN OFF like a COMPLETE DIRTBAG!!!” You mentally kick yourself for nonchalantly giving Undyne the perfect method for going all out against you, but more than that you’re caught off guard by what Asgore said.

“Oh my, is that so? I would assist you on your search, but it is not often I am able to take Asriel out camping like this, so-”

“No I totally get it! Your camping trips are THE BEST!! I’m more than enough to take care of the brat, so you sit back and relax! Now I know they aren’t anywhere around here if you haven’t seen them. Thanks, Asgore!” Undyne’s comment is followed by more footsteps, this time fading away into the opposite direction they came from. You wait in the tent, still frozen in some lingering fear. With this forest, your movement would be significantly hindered, but from what you’ve seen of Undyne in the past, it would hardly slow her down. Your thoughts then go to Asgore, who completely saved your life. It would be one thing if he was ignorant, but Undyne described you in enough detail that anyone could have figured it out. If he knew that, then…

“Frisk, have you found the lighter yet?” Asgore calls out, pulling you out of your thoughts.

You step out from the tent, still wary from what just happened, “Uh, no, I didn’t see it anywhere in there...”

“Hm, I suppose I did not plan to pack it for this trip. After all, Asriel and I are capable of simply using fire magic.”

“Fire magic?”

In response, Asgore opened his hand in front of himself as a small white flame appeared, more wide than tall, “Yes, so while it is unfortunate you won’t be able to light the campfire yourself, I suppose it was never needed in the first place,” he said, a gentle smile on his face as he snuffs out the flame.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hm hm, sure is strange that this snowdin is a lot warmer.  
> also I Really like how soft Asgore's character can be, so hopefully y'all also enjoy how I pull it.  
> As usual, if you want some place to talk about this fic or others of mine, or wanna just drop in to say hi, you're more than welcome to my [Discord~!](https://discord.gg/cVr4W6J)
> 
> Next Chapter: peace scouts and badges


End file.
